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EBSCO Publishing released its first subscription ebook collection. eBook Academic Subscription Collection supplies full-text ebooks covering a broad spectrum of academic subjects from business to science and engineering to the humanities. Nearly 70,000 titles are included.

eBook Academic Subscription Collection is offered on an annual subscription basis with unlimited access to the content. Each title is offered with unlimited users allowing more users access to each title in the collection. As with all ebooks available from EBSCO, eBook Academic Subscription Collection will integrate seamlessly with all EBSCOhost content. Users will be able to search the collection on its own or side-by-side with other EBSCOhost databases.

EBSCO Publishing’s senior director of ebook products, Ken Breen, says libraries can use eBook Academic Subscription Collection as the foundation of a comprehensive ebook offering. “Users gravitate towards online resources more and more each day. By introducing a large subscription offering, EBSCO’s goal is to provide librarians with a foundation on which to build out their collections.” Libraries can build upon that foundation by selecting Subject Sets, Featured Collections, Custom Collections, and unique title-by-title purchases from eBooks on EBSCOhost to tailor their library’s overall ebook collection.

Annual subscription is the latest way EBSCO enables libraries to add ebooks to their collection. Libraries are able to purchase titles to add to their permanent collection. Forthcoming options include the ability to make titles available via Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA), to be purchased only if/when users need them and to lease titles libraries only need for a short time.